A Stray
by PhantomKitty957
Summary: The deputy of HorizonClan, Flametail falls in love with a stray, pregnant she-cat. Will fate let them be together? Better yet...can he save her in time for her kits to be born?
1. Chapter 1

There was a cry. A painful cry. An agonizing cry. A cry that pleaded for help, and mercy. But who? Why? What could have such pain and despair? It was nothing that young Flametail had ever heard before, and he couldn't understand it. He was only able to make out, the mere idea of where it was coming from. The light that he was so used to, was so bright that the only thing he could see was the slight gleam of his whiskers in front of his face. And also, he had just a minute ago, been with a patrol. Where were they? Why was he alone suddenly with this horrifying scream?

Flametail cleared his throat and called, "Featherear? Are you there? What is that sound? Do you hear it too?" But the voice of his friend did not break through the blinding light. However, the light slowly but surely, began to cease. Flametail waited for his eyesight to resume, but things just turned to black. And though the light had faded to nothing, the cry did not. In fact, it seemed louder. Now filled with fear, he leaped into the air. And at that moment he could feel the blazing hot sand, and see the the long land of dirt that lay out ahead of him. He could see again. And he felt different. He was dreaming.

"Goodness how could I be so foolish...?" Then he realized that, the cry could still be heard. He bit down on his tongue really hard, "Come on wake up!!" It was so painful that he nearly cried out himself. But nothing changed. The distant cry did fade away though. Like something dying a horrible death. He stood up, gasping at the blood dripping from his mouth. He hissed from the pain. Or perhaps at himself for doing that.

"There you are you lazy fleabag!" He turned to see Featherear, and his apprentice, Ashpaw approaching.

Featherear scowled, "Apprentice! Do not speak to the deputy in such a way!" Then he saw Flametail and his eyes widened in shock. "Did you catch some prey?"

Flametail did not answer, but gasped and squinted from the pain through blood.

Featherear stepped back momentarily to try and guess what was going on. Then he shouted, "Ashpaw, go find Dovewing and bring her here!"

"At your service!" Ashpaw dashed off towards HorizonClan camp, kicking sand up in a swirl behind him.

Dovewing arrived a while later, when most of the bleeding had already stopped, and Flametail's jaw was covered in dried blood. He lay there on the sand breathing heavily with his eyes closed, wishing that the pain would stop. Dovewing slowly opened up his jaw and peered inside to see what the bleeding was coming from.

"I'm assuming he bit his tongue."

Featherear flicked his tail in annoyance and confusion,"Why?"

"Well...we could ask him but I doubt the wound will let him answer. Come now Flametail. I was rushed here so fast I could not bring anything with me to help. But surely you are able to walk. Let's go back to camp and we'll see what we can do."

Flametail nodded, and stood up, trembling and followed the others.

Entering camp, Featherear was struggling to get him to speak, or speak clearly.

"What caused you to do this? It must have been something."

"It's a dream..." was the first thing Flametail was able to studder out.

"Unfortunately, this is not a dream, as much as you wish it was. Everycat must suffer at sometime though."

"The dream....was...it must have been...."

Now Featherear just stared at his friend as if he had been hit in the head too hard.

"The scream...."

Dovewing interrupted,"Hush! Come with me to my burrow now."

Ashpaw raced ahead of them into Dovewing's burrow. She stuck her head in after him.

"Out of there. This is no time for you to be snooping, you little nuisance." She nudged him playfully as he crawled out.

Flametail hesitated before going into her burrow, wondering whether he should tell her about what he had experienced or not, after all she was the medicine cat. He just followed, trying to lick some of the dried blood off, but his tongue hurt too much for it to be moved.

Dovewing gave him some herbs that would ease his hunger for a while, since he would not be able to eat, and also rubbed the fowl tasting liquid from a plant stem on his tongue. "Leave it. It may not taste like a treat but if you want it to heal, you must deal with it," she said.

After leaving her burrow, he was approached by the HorizonClan leader, Sunstar.

"How did this happen?" he asked. One of many.

_Should I tell him? _Flametail wondered. "I got surprised and bit myself by accident," he lied.

Sunstar seemed to be questionable about his answer, but just walked away without saying a word.


	2. Chapter 2

Flametail just decided to wander off, where he could think about things without being interrupted. He sat beneath a small tree and sniffed the air. He did not smell any prey that he could possibly take back to camp, but it was not like he could catch anything in his condition anyway. Was what he had a dream or not? If so could it have been a prophecy? He figured that somehow, a real scream must have merged with a dream he was having. That must mean....that something somewhere was really crying out. But where and why? Should he find out...is what he wondered the most. He started to meander the direction to the place he had been when he had fell asleep, and not to mention, bit his tongue. Surely he could find out more from there.

Once he arrived there again, the sky was turning colors and the sun was only half way seen down the horizon. He chose the direction he thought the sound to be coming from before, and followed it, hoping to pick up a scent.

Soon enough, what he smelled was blood. And it was not his own this time. He smelled it on top of the scent of a strange cat, one that he did not know. An outsider in their territory! Yet it seemed to be a she-cat that was injured. He could have turned back to go tell his clanmates, but he decided to carry on, and see what the problem was first. He was almost sure that this injured cat he smelled, was the one that he had heard wailing before.

He started to near a place that had more trees than where his clan spent most of their time. It was where the plant life divided the vast sandy plain, and the place that the sea was. The sea, that Flametail had never seen before. He hardly even knew what a sea was. But this is where the scent of the she-cat took him.

It was here soon, that he found her. She was a long-haired she-cat, and her entire back end, including the legs, seemed to be damaged. It was like...she had been crushed by something. He thought to himself, that she would not make it, whether she was still alive or not. And she was in fact, still alive. It was easy to tell that her side rose and fell gently in the pattern of breathing. But she was not conscious. He could either leave her there, to feed the seagulls he had heard about, or tell his clan so that they could dispose of her. Either way it didn't matter because nothing could be done.

But then he noticed something about her that horrified him. She was pregnant. And she would be kitting very soon, from the looks of it. This gave Flametail different thoughts completely. There must be something that could be done! Maybe Dovewing knew something...but that could never work, this cat was an intruder, and no one would understand. He slowly approached her body and nuzzled her scruff. She did not move. He grabbed her ear, even with his throbbing tongue, and tugged on her.

All of a sudden, he was thrown into the sand onto his back.

"How dare you touch me like that!" she hissed, with her upper half lifted into the air. She slightly winced in pain.

"You're injured..." Flametail said quietly.

Her eyes suddenly clouded with emotional pain instead of physical. "Obviously I am. And..."

"You're having kits." Flametail stared at her with sympathetic eyes.

She looked down, "Leave! Go now! I would like to...die...in peace..."

Flametail was shocked that she was so sure of her death. "Maybe...you won't die..."

"Oh face the facts fur ball! This is a severe wound...I can't bear it much longer anyway."

"Well...you are not going to die...the worst that could happen I think is that you would not be able to walk for the rest of your life."

"Then there really is no reason to live now is there?"

He stared at her, unable to think of what to say next. He felt a pang of great sadness for her, and her kits.

"Leave!" she shouted again.

"Please! At least try to do something before you give up on life! You can't just forget about your kits!"

She turned and stared the opposite direction. "I was just hoping...that I could raise them..." she whimpered, "I have always wanted to raise kits, and give them a good life."

Flametail tried to keep a straight face. "what happened to you anyway?"

"I think it was...a tree, that collapsed on me."

"Let me help you. Please."

"What can you do? You're just one of those clanlife cats."

Flametail was surprised,"What clan are you from?"

"I am not from a clan."

Flametail was more surprised. He had never met a cat that was not from a clan before. Then a thought came to his mind.

"You're a kittypet aren't you?!" he spat.

"Calm down fuzzy, I'm not anymore."

"What are you then?" he twisted his ears in confusion. "Wait...if you're not a clan cat, and you're not a kittypet, then you must be a rogue!"

She twitched her whiskers in annoyance,"No! I am just simply a stray."

Flametail stared unknowingly.

She sighed,"I once belonged to two-legs. But I was forced to leave because of a dog. Then soon after I was off on my own, I got pregnant."

"Where do you live then?"

"Nowhere. The world is my home!"

"Well...I still think we need to do something before it is too late."

"Alright. Do whatever. I would like to get some rest if you don't mind."

"I'll be back later. I'm going to go get some food for you. Stay here."

"As if I could go anywhere."

Before turning to leave, Flametail asked,"What is your name?"

"Patches. That is what the two-legs called me. And you?"

"Flametail."

Flametail returned when it was completely dark. He carried with him, a fat mouse and a sparrow. He could see Patches stretched out in the same spot.

"Hello again." she seemed to greet him more friendly this time.

"I see that you're not asleep."

"It's impossible to sleep."

Flametail shoved the bird and the mouse towards her. She sniffed them, then began to eat quickly.

"Did your clan members suspect anything?" she asked through a mouthful.

"They didn't know," he replied quietly.

She nodded and continued eating.

"I'm going to stay with you tonight," he said suddenly.

"What?! Why?!"

"I think it would be the safe thing to do."

"But your clan..."

"I shall wake you right before dawn, and return to them as they are waking. I will tell them I was catching prey."

"You don't have to-"

"I shall make it my duty."

She licked him lightly, as if to thank him.

"Now eat quickly and try to go to sleep," he ordered.


	3. Chapter 3

Flametail awoke the next morning to a surrounding of shadows, with slight dapples of sunlight that blinded him. Patches was still sleeping, her wounds making her look as if she was lifeless, but the sound of peaceful breathing sounded from her and calmed him. He decided the best thing to do was to go catch prey and have it ready for when she awoke. He forced himself on to his feet, and flinched when he realized how much his tongue throbbed. Ignoring the hunting doubt, he stalked off to where he seemed to smell bird. He avoided the branches around him as much as he could, and walked like he was walking on thin ice. Normally he had not gone this far from HorizonClan territory, and he was used to being on silky sand. He stopped when he felt he needed to stay within a memorable distance of Patches, and sniffed the air. He defiantly smelled bird but it was some kind that he hadn't smelled, much less hunted before. He followed it's scent until it's presence almost smacked him in the face. He crouched low in the strange-smelling undergrowth, hoping that these birds weren't very smart. At first he found nothing, but after several times of scanning the area up and down from his hiding place, he spotted several large white birds with long beaks perched high in the trees. Some made strange noises, with some scattered around as quietly as they could.

_Heh...these things will be easy to catch, _he thought. He began to think of a strategy of how to get them from so far down. Normally, when a bird is being chased, it's first instinct is to fly up and away. He edged his way ad close to the nearest tree silently, and put a paw on it, to begin climbing. As he climbed, he kept his claws tensely sheathed, as not to give away his approach.

Soon he was so close he could almost taste their strange scent. He figured he could leap up and catch one when they scattered. Then he slowly reached up a paw, and shook the branch, causing one of the birds to make a hideous screeching noise, and of course, all the others recoiled. That was his chance. He sprung for the nearest bird, but right as he almost caught it, it flew away. He quickly grabbed onto the branch he was hoping to land on, but unfortunately, his hind legs failed to grab on, and his fore legs were having to hold his whole weight up. He was tempted to try and catch another one, but he knew that would just be another stupid mistake.

_I'm not catching birds the classy way anyway..._He thought. Besides, in the climate he was used to, birds were not a popular prey in his clan. But he thought too late, for his fore legs suddenly weakened and lost their grasp. And the fall was a long way.

Pain was not a pleasant thing to wake up to, Flametail found. When he opened his eyes, the air had loosened, and he could tell that it had become midday. Also, the leg he had fallen on was throbbing. He just closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh foreign air.

_I always manage to do something to myself,_ he thought, _I must be my own worst enemy. _But then he remembered that there was no time to be complaining to himself. There was still an injured, pregnant she-cat who haven't eaten yet, and his duty was to help her.

He forced himself to stand up again, trying hard to ignore the agonizing pain that followed, because to him it didn't matter that he had nearly died, he just wanted to see Patches able to raise kits one day. Even though his energy was at a low rate now, he continued his hunt.

When he returned to Patches later that day, he carried two plump mice with him. He immediately noticed that her eyes were closed, so he wondered if she had been asleep that whole time. Maybe she had suddenly died! His heart skipped a beat. But right at that moment, her eyes opened calmly and shifted to where he was standing. She looked very enervated.

"I thought you weren't coming back," she mumbled.

Flametail dropped the mice in front of her, "Of course I was coming back, I made this my priority."

She looked very surprised then, "I thought you clan life cats only made your clan your priority."

Flametail paid no mind to that statement, and just pushed the mice closer to her.

"For you."

"Thanks..." she started eating avidly without even sniffing her food first. Flametail laid down next to her, and started licking his hurt leg furiously.

She noticed out of the corner of her eye.

"You have an itch or something?" She asked persistently.

"No...it's just a little sore, that's all."

She didn't bother further, and just continued eating.

"So why do you hate us clan cats?" Flametail asked.

Patches stopped devouring her food and narrowed her eyes, "Who said I did? Though I can't say I'm very fond of any of you. You're all so selfish and ruthless."

He thought about shooting back a defensive remark about the lowlife style of strays and rouges, be he was too tired to get in an argument. He closed he eyes and let his body relax.

Soon as he was almost asleep, and the air had become pleasingly cool, he felt Patches slowly edge closed to him, and let out a peaceful sigh that indicated she was about the fall asleep as well.

Then quietly she whispered in his ear, "I guess...not all of you are so bad."


	4. Chapter 4

This time, when Flametail awoke, it was dark. A slight breeze rustled through the trees, and Patches was sound asleep.

_I need to get back to the clan now_, he thought immediately. He stood up and stretched his leg for a minute, then quickly headed off the direction of his home. Turning briefly to glance back at Patches, he gave a silent prayer to StarClan that she would be alright until he returned. Then he ran off leaving her out of sight in the blackness.

Once he was back in his own territory, he began to hunt again, for the night crawlers. Once he had caught quite a few, he would bury them, then he would have an excuse for having been gone so long.

Back at HorizonClan camp, it was quite and empty, just as he expected. Everyone was sleeping. He headed for the warrior's den, eager to sleep inside of it again, when a familiar face popped out in front of him.

"Where have you been?!" Lemonfur bellowed.

Flametail twitched his ears, this she-cat could really be a pain sometimes. "Sorry...I was hunting."

"For that long?! Give me a break! What's the deal here? We can't have a deputy that goes missing, then tells us lies!"

"Well I have a lot of prey stashed to prove it!"

"Wha...?" Another familiar figure came crawling out of the den. Fawnbreeze.

"He's back," Lemonfur sneered.

Fawnbreeze blinked at him, "Flametail? Where were you...?"

"Hunting," he repeated.

"Of course," another cat, this time, Flametail turned around to see Sunstar staring at him. "Hopefully you caught enough prey to last us a few days, because you were certainly gone long enough."

"Well...I have...a lot."

"Do you need help carrying it? I can come along, when it's sun high, and help," Fawnbreeze volunteered.

Flametail almost purred. She was the most laid back cat in the entire clan.

"I'd like to go along. I want to see just what you have caught," Lemonfur broke the moment with her fiery attitude again.

"You both may go. Hopefully you come back with your time's worth, Flametail," and with that, Sunstar turned with a flick of his tail, back toward his den.

Flametail sighed and stalked around Lemonfur and Fawnbreeze into the den to get some sleep. As he passed, Lemonfur murmured, "You're crowfood if there isn't enough prey to feed all of us." He ignored her, and went to curl up in the back of the den.

As he drifted off to sleep again, he dreamt of Patches. Some of the dreams were good, where she was a beautiful mother frolicking with a lively litter of kits. Some were bad, where she was nothing but a frail stray, fading away into death. He wondered which were actually going to come true.

Flametail had almost forgotten was it was like to wake up to the blazing sun, and burning sand. He stood outside of the den entrance squinting at the sun, and purring for a few minutes, when Featherear padded up to him, and sat down, facing the same direction.

He stayed silent for a while, then with a sigh said, "Welcome back."

"Are you going to question me too?" Flametail opened his eyes and turned to face his friend.

"Well I heard the same thing from more than one cat, so...I'm assuming you went hunting. For a very long time."

"Yeah, well I really did catch a lot. I guess I just felt suddenly more committed than ever." Flametail shuttered at the lie he just told. False commitment to your clan, especially when you're deputy was terrible.

"Guess you're stuck with Lemonfur."

"You had to remind me." Flametail started toward the pile of fresh kill, which was fairly small, and Featherear followed.

"Sorry. I can go along too if you would like."

"Sure. Unless you have something better to do, I have already got two she-cats going with me." He picked out a small mouse, and sniffed it, without meeting Featherear's gaze.

"I've got nothing better to do. Ashpaw is training with Sandclaw and Stormpaw today."

Flametail twitched his ears while eating in small bites, "Why?"

"Stormpaw isn't catching on very easily. Sunstar thought he could train with another apprentice."

"Oh." Flametail noticed Featherear sitting idley, "Aren't you going to eat?"

"I'm not really hungry."

"Strange. Are you upset about Ashpaw?"

"Probably. I tend to be the jealous type."

Lemonfur and Fawnbreeze showed up on either side of the two toms then.

"Ready to go, mouse-brain?" Lemonfur asked, spitting on Flametail's mouse.

"Yeah...let's go." He frowned at his half eaten breakfast, and started walking away without waiting for someone else to make first action.

Because of all the complaining from Lemonfur, Fawnbreeze, and Featherear kept quiet. As they gathered Flametail's heaps of prey, she still wasn't satisfied.

"I knew you wouldn't get enough! This is only enough for half the clan!"

"Oh, for StarClan's sake, Lemonfur, get a grip. Prey is scarce around here anymore." Featherear protested.

Flametail smiled at his friend for his defense.

"We'll just see what Sunstar says about it."

Fawnbreeze had been silent the whole time, but she shook her head shamefully at Lemonfur's rude remarks as the four ventured back toward camp with mouthfuls of kill each.

"Well, for our amount of prey, I am quite impressed," Sunstar sniffed the pile inspectingly.

Flametail felt relieved. Normally the clan leader was much more critical.

"But Sunstar, it's still not enough for the whole clan," Lemonfur, trying to cause trouble again.

"We have plenty of other fresh kill from the rest of the clan. I hope you keep up the good work, Flametail," Sunstar nodded approvingly, and left.

Lemonfur snarled and turned on her paw, to walk away, defeated.

"I'll tell the apprentices to take some of this to the elders," Fawnbreeze said, also departing.

"I wonder how Ashpaw is doing," Featherear wondered out loud.

Flametail motioned with his tail to where the apprentice was standing, "Go check."

Featherear followed the order, and approached his apprentice eargerly.

Flametail was alone again, and there were no suspicions. He needed to take food to Patches again. Quickly he grabbed some prey, with some extra to last her for a while, and checked to make sure no one was watching, then he slipped out of camp unseen again.

Flametail had ran to reach the trees again, making his leg sore, and his tongue sore from grasping tightly to the food. He stopped near Patches spot to rest and loosen his tension. Dropping the prey for a minute, and sniffing the air, something seemed different, and Patches' scent was very faint. Starting to worry, he picked up the prey, and padded slowly to her place, where, to his dismay, she was not.


End file.
